


One May-Day Afternoon

by sachspanner



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beltane, Community: love bingo, F/M, Handfasting, Implied Slash, Pagan Festivals, Paganism, Weddings, Wicca
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 00:58:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/920107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sachspanner/pseuds/sachspanner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The handfasting of Lance and Gwen, as conducted by all their friends, magical and otherwise. The story of a beautiful summer day, and the ramshackle lot gathered on Gwen and Lance's front lawn doing their best to marry them.</p><p>Pure unadulterated fluff. If you're looking for peril, intrigue or plot, this isn't it. It's just harmless, syrupy, handfasting fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One May-Day Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> The handfasting in this story is based on the version of the ceremony described in the _Wicca Bible_ , but adapted to suit the purposes of the author. It is not meant to accurately represent a pagan or wiccan handfasting with any great accuracy.
> 
> Written for LJ's love bingo comm, under the prompt "Commitment Ceremony".

Summer weddings might have been old hat, but there was something unmistakeably nice about the idea. It was May-day, the first tentative wafts of summer drifting through the English countryside, twining threads of golden sunshine with the youthful green of the land.

For the rest of her life, Gwen would watch the wheel of the year turn, and each time be overjoyed when May-day rolled around again. Not just the anniversary of her handfasting with Lance, but undoubtedly the most beautiful time of year.

It wasn’t a large affair- that would wait until they got to the registry office. For now it was just a few friends out on the front lawn of their new house, their first house together.

‘Right, are we all ready?’ asked Merlin, raising his voice over the lazy chatter of the guests.

It had been well rehearsed, thankfully, and they all had a part to play. Once they were all gathered in vague order, Merlin took a staff and began to cast a circle around them, drawing a hazy barrier of purple smoke.

‘I cast this circle as a barrier between the worlds,’ he intoned, ‘as a container of the power we raise, and a guardian and protector of all who stand within. I cast it as a sacred space, the place of Gwen’s marriage to Lance, and a place for us to consider the love that brings the pair of them here today.’

After a nod to Morgause in the north, Merlin turned to Gilli, who recited his piece.

‘In the East, we welcome the element of Air, to this circle and this marriage. May you bring the gifts of communication and happy memories.’

He lit the yellow candle in his hand, before turning to Morgana.

‘In the south, we welcome the element of Fire, to this circle and this marriage. May you bring the gifts of loyalty and passion.’

She said the last word with a congratulatory wink to Lance, who turned to Gwen looking nothing short of mortified. Freya bit back a smile as Morgana lit her red candle innocently.

‘In the west, we welcome the element of Water, to this circle and this marriage.’ She composed herself. ‘May you bring the gifts of patience and love.’

Freya lit her own blue candle, and turned to Morgause, who spoke up.

‘In the north, we welcome the element of Earth, to this circle and this marriage. May you bring the gifts of firm foundations and dependability.’

A green candle ignited, and all eyes turned to Merlin, stood at the altar.

‘In the heart, we welcome the element of Spirit, to this circle and this marriage. May you bring the gift of wisdom and judgement, to strengthen the actions and words of these two people as they begin their lives together.’

Merlin lit his own, white candle and looked around at the tiny gathering with mild amusement.

‘Look at you all. You’d think some of you had never been in a magic circle.’

Arthur was looking cautiously at the barrier of purple smoke. Much for the frequency of magical people in his life, they didn’t tend to use their abilities in front of him.

‘Will it hurt? If we cross it?’

Morgana laughed derisively.

‘It’s just a guide,’ Merlin smiled, a little more helpfully. ‘It’s just there to show the boundary, it’s not a forcefield or anything.’

‘But you said it was a barrier between the worlds?’ Gwaine asked.

‘It is,’ Freya shrugged. ‘We’re in the circle-space. It’s a point which touches the magical world but it’s not a doorway. You shouldn’t cross the boundary, but only because it’s bad manners, not because you’ll end up in the _other_ place.’

‘Now can we get on with the wedding?’ Merlin asked with a smile. ‘Good. Now, when Gwen and Lance asked me to do this for them, I was honoured. Ever since Lance found out about my gift with magic, he’s been one of my closest friends, and to see him handfast himself to another one of my friends, Gwen- well, I’m just really happy we could all be here to witness it, as a friendship group.’

‘Hear, hear,’ chirped Gwaine. Percy gave him a light shove, causing him to nearly topple into Gwen.

‘Now,’ Merlin grinned, lifting a two-bladed knife from the altar carefully. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to swear on this blade that you know of no reason for this union to not go ahead.’

Gwen smiled as the knife was passed to her.

‘I swear, on this blade, that I know of no reason why this union should not proceed.’

All repeated after her, with subtle tweaks to the wording, as the knife made its way around the circle in a clockwise direction, ending with Gwaine.

‘On this blade, I swear that I know no reason why these two people may not be joined, and so on and so forth, in holy matrimony until the day they die, Amen. Get on with it, Merlin.’

‘Touching words, Gwaine,’ Merlin rolled his eyes, turning back to the couple. ‘It's only supposed to be a year and a day, not the rest of their lives.’

‘Yeah, right, have you met these two?’

‘Morgana,’ Percy sighed, ‘Do you have any spells for shutting Gwaine up?’

At Morgana’s wicked expression, Gwaine mimed zipping his lips closed.

‘Guinevere, Lancelot,’ Merlin continued, ‘I ask you to remember your commitment, not only to each other, but to the entire world. Remember not only to love each other, but the very air you breathe, the fire which gives you energy, the water you drink and the earth you walk upon. In your joint life together, you have a commitment to harm nothing- follow your hearts’ desires, so long as you harm nothing. Now marry yourselves.’

Gwen turned to Lance and smiled.

‘In the sight of our friends and family, at this time and in this place, I come to pledge my commitment to Lancelot Du Lac.’

Lance held her hand gently.

‘In the sight of our friends and family, in this place and at this time, I come to pledge my commitment to Guinevere Smith.’

Arthur stepped up to the altar. He had spent much of the past few weeks tearing his hair out while learning how to make bread, and the culmination of his efforts, a sizeable cottage loaf, was finally ready to eat. He tore a piece each for Gwen and Lance.

‘May you never want for anything,’ he said, handing them the morsels. ‘May you always share in what you have.’

Arthur stepped back and allowed Gwaine to get to the altar and pick up a chalice of wine, which he handed to each partner in turn.

‘May you drink from the same cup, and always remember the love you expressed for each other this day.’

He stepped back towards Percy as the couple began their vows.

‘Lance, I offer you a promise as a sign of my commitment to you, that I will be the best companion I can be. I will make sure that you always know happiness, for as long as love lasts.’

‘Gwen, I offer you a promise as a sign of my commitment to you, that I will put you first. I will stay loyal to you no matter what, and I will never hesitate to defend you, with whatever it takes, for as long as love lasts.’

Elyan then took a length of white cord from the altar, taking it around the circle in a clockwise direction.

‘I’d just like to ask all of you here present to make your wishes for my sister and her groom, so that they may be woven into this cord, the cord that will bind them together as they make their covenant.’

Some shut their eyes, some reached out to touch the cord as it made its way slowly around the circle, before Elyan placed it back on the altar for Merlin’s blessing.

‘I call upon the gods of the Old Religion to weave the hopes of this congregation into these cords, that the union of Gwen and Lance be strengthened by the good wishes of their friends and family gathered here today.’

Elyan picked up the cords, and passed an end each to Gwen and Lance. They joined hands, and began to bind their wrists with the end of the cord.

Gwen looked up to Lance, mouthing _three, two…_

‘I bind myself to you of my own free will,’ they echoed in near-unison. ‘I will honour your right to grow, and to change, and I will support and love you in the best way I can, for as long as love lasts. So let it be!’

Behind them, Percy laid a broomstick across their garden path, and still holding hands, they jumped over it, the ceremony over. The guests clapped in congratulations, but also in relief that everything the group had been building up to for so long had run so smoothly. Everyone had done their bit for Gwen and Lance.

All Merlin had to do was close the circle, which he did, the smoky tendrils dispersing into the air as Gwen and Lance crossed the boundary and walked, still hand-in-hand, up into their house.

‘We thank the elements for their presence. Hail and abide.’

All five of the candle-bearers extinguished their candle and whatever solemnity the ceremony had required was lost in an instant. They descended into the happy chatter of old friends as they followed the newly-wed couple into the house.

‘Not bad for a first-timer, Merlin,’ Lance smiled, setting out sandwiches with the hand that wasn’t still tied to Gwen’s.

‘I think my only ambition was to be better than Rowan Atkinson’s character in _Four Weddings and a Funeral_.’

‘Aiming low, as ever,’ Arthur shook his head, pulling out a chair.

‘Did you two want help?’ Freya offered. ‘The binding hands thing looks awkward.’

‘We’re fine,’ Gwen smiled, as Lance dragged her towards the fridge.

The kitchen table and dining table had been pushed together, and a couple of tablecloths thrown over them to hide the join. Around them were scattered all the chairs from the house, including the swivel chair that Elyan had selected.

Sandwiches, pastries, cold meats, cakes, and the remains of Arthur’s cottage loaf were scattered from end to end, dotted with iced glasses for Percy’s eagerly awaited peach cyser.

‘Eighteen per cent,’ he warned. ‘Though it doesn’t taste like it.’

‘To Gwen and Lance,’ Elyan toasted, raising his own glass.

All took the toast in a dignified manner, excepting Freya, who spluttered.

‘What do you mean it doesn’t taste like it?’ she asked, eyes watering.

‘It’s delicious, Percy,’ Morgause admitted somewhat grudgingly.

Cyser served to lubricate the evening quite well, the friends chattering away until long after the long orange shadows of sunset had spread their way across the fields.

‘Getting the legal stuff done doesn’t matter much any more,’ Lance shrugged. ‘If my friends know she’s my wife, and know how much I love her, that’s what matters.’

Echoes of _aww_ turned into raucous laughter, and Gwaine patted Lance on the back for his moment of soppiness.

‘We’ll go down to the register office eventually. Just not yet,’ Gwen smiled, once the noise died down.

‘A year and a day?’ asked Merlin.

‘It’d be fitting, I suppose,’ she replied happily, making tipsy eyes at Lance.

‘Well,’ Morgana stretched her neck, which cracked audibly, ‘I say we all wander back to mine, and leave these two to bring in the May.’

So the friends tumbled, wolf-whistling, into the night, leaving two of their number standing in the doorway, hand in hand, bound for as long as their love would last, or, as it would turn out to be, eternity.

**Author's Note:**

> To _bring in the May_ is a euphemism. As this is for general audiences, I shall have to say it refers to giving the person one loves a "special hug". This is still a euphemism, but one you may be more familiar with.


End file.
